A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder."I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Eats, Shoots and Leaves. What a book! It's moved to the must read list.
Listening to the book review and author interview on NPR on NPR I was finally absolved of all of my usual comma-happy-ness. A comma here, a comma there, or a comma, well, for emphasis. Author Lynne Truss reveals that one whose profession entails much public speaking tends to use a greater number of commas as a method of leaving space or making emphasis. Commas have become for such people (yes, myself included) a method of separating thoughts, and breaths. Phew!
I therefore declare comma amnesty for myself!
